🇬🇧 Thomson Local Scraper

Extract UK business listings, contact details, and opening hours from Thomson Local. One of the UK's largest business directories with over 2.6 million listings.

❓ What does Thomson Local Scraper do?

Thomson Local Scraper is an Apify Actor that extracts structured business data from Thomson Local search results. It does not require a Thomson Local account.

Point it at any business category and location, and it returns clean, structured JSON with names, phone numbers, addresses, websites, emails, opening hours, and more.

💡 What can this Actor do?

• 🔍 Search by category: Scrape any business type: plumbers, solicitors, car dealers, restaurants, and more.
• 📍 Filter by location: Narrow results to a specific UK city or region, or scrape UK-wide.
• 📋 Extract detailed profiles: Optionally follow each listing to its detail page for enriched data (additional phone numbers, payment methods, opening hours, keywords).
• 📤 Export anywhere: Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel, or connect to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, and 1,500+ other apps via Apify integrations

📊 What data can you extract?

Field	Example	Always available?
Business name	"Smith & Sons Plumbing"	Yes
Phone number	"01234 56789 "	Yes
Street address	"42 High Street"	Yes
City / locality	"London"	Yes
Postcode	"SW1A1AA"	Yes
Website URL	"https://example.co.uk"	Yes
Email link	"https://www.thomsonlocal.com/contactbusiness/-1234/..."	Yes
Description	"Family-run plumbing..."	Yes
Listing type	"Enhanced"	Yes
Detail page URL	Full Thomson Local URL	Yes
Additional phones	["020 7946 0958"]	Detail page only
Fax numbers	["01234 567890"]	Detail page only
Keywords / categories	["Plumber", "Heating"]	Detail page only
Payment options	["Visa", "Mastercard"]	Detail page only
Opening hours	{"Monday": "08:00-18:00"}	Detail page only
Additional links	Extra website URLs	Detail page only
Scraped timestamp	"2026-03-25T10:30:00Z"	Yes

📥 Input example

{
  "search_term": "plumbers",
  "location": "london",
  "max_pages": 5,
  "scrape_details": false,
  "proxy_configuration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
search_term	String	Yes	car dealers	Business category to search (e.g., plumbers, car-dealers, electricians)
location	String	No	london	UK city or region to filter results. Leave empty for UK-wide search
max_pages	Integer	No	10	Maximum result pages to scrape (1–10). 0 = scrape all available pages (Thomson Local returns at most 10)
scrape_details	Boolean	No	false	Follow each listing to its detail page for additional data
proxy_configuration	Object	No	Apify Proxy	Proxy settings — Apify Proxy is recommended for reliability

📤 Output example

Each result is a JSON object pushed to the default dataset:

{
  "name": "Smith & Sons Plumbing Ltd",
  "phone": "02079 460958",
  "street_address": "42 High Street",
  "locality": "London",
  "postcode": "EC1A 1BB",
  "website": "https://www.smithplumbing.co.uk",
  "email_link": "https://www.thomsonlocal.com/contactbusiness/-1234/?businessName=smith-and-sons-plumbing-ltd&listingposition=0",
  "description": "Family-run plumbing and heating specialists serving Greater London since 1985.",
  "detail_url": "https://www.thomsonlocal.com/smith-and-sons-plumbing-ltd/london/123456",
  "listing_type": "Enhanced",
  "additional_phones": ["020 7946 0959"],
  "fax_numbers": ["020 7946 0960"],
  "keywords": ["Plumber", "Heating Engineer", "Gas Safe Registered"],
  "payment_options": ["Visa", "Mastercard", "Cash", "Bank Transfer"],
  "opening_hours": {
    "Monday": "08:00 - 18:00",
    "Tuesday": "08:00 - 18:00",
    "Wednesday": "08:00 - 18:00",
    "Thursday": "08:00 - 18:00",
    "Friday": "08:00 - 17:00",
    "Saturday": "09:00 - 13:00",
    "Sunday": "Open"
  },
  "additional_links": [],
  "scraped_at": "2026-03-25T10:30:00Z"
}

💪 Tips for best results

• Use category slugs: for the search term — e.g., car-dealers not Car Dealers. Check Thomson Local's URL structure for the correct slug.
• Enable detail scraping: for the richest data: opening hours, payment methods, and keywords are only available on detail pages.
• Use Apify Proxy: for reliable results, especially on larger runs.
• ⏱Set a page limit: during testing to control costs before running a full scrape.

🎯 Why scrape Thomson Local?

Thomson Local is one of the UK's most comprehensive business directories. Extracting this data enables:

• Lead generation: Build targeted prospect lists by trade and location for sales outreach.
• Market research: Analyse business density, competition, and coverage across UK regions.
• Data enrichment: Supplement your CRM with verified UK business contact details.
• Competitor analysis: Monitor competitors' listings, descriptions, and service areas.
• Local SEO audits: Check how businesses present themselves on directory sites.

🔗 Integrations and API access

Connect Thomson Local data directly to your workflow:

• API — Trigger runs and fetch results programmatically via the Apify API.
• JavaScript / Python clients — Use the official Apify SDK to integrate into your applications.
• Webhooks — Get notified when a run completes.
• Integrations — Send data to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airbyte, and more.

🧑‍💻 Need something support?

If you need modifications — different data fields, higher volume, or integration with your existing systems — feel free to reach out via the Issues tab or contact me for a custom solution.

🛠️ Maintainer

• Author: Dominic M. Quaiser
• Contact: mail@dominic-quaiser.io
• Website: dominic-quaiser.io